Friday, January 9, 2009

Pictured here are all eight of the Jane Blushing Cheeks blushes and all four of the Jane Be Pure Mineral Gel Eyeliners, which come in a pot and with a small eyeliner brush that is actually remarkable (far better than most high- and low-end ones available for purchase, in my opinion; at least give it a chance before you go to throw it out!). All of these blushes and liners can be found at most Walgreens and Rite Aids for $3-4 each (but, as always, you can wait for a BOGO sale - which, in fact, is occurring right now at Rite Aid).

I'm rather ambivalent about the blushes, though I know they are popular and well-loved by many... it could be just that my skin is slightly more cool-toned (NW10-15ish), but a few of them looked downright orange on my skin (Baby Doll, Earth Sheer, Glow), and another just too warm in tone (Petal). Of the eight, four are matte (Baby Doll, Blossom, Wine, and Petal) and four have shimmer (Orchid Shimmer, Earth Sheer, Plum - which, for the record, is not "plummy" at all - and Glow). All the shades go on smoothly and I have found them to be very blendable and buildable (though I wouldn't advise you to pile on too much of some of the warmer tones, or you might end up looking like an Oompa-Loompa unless you have very dark skin). My two favorites are Blossom and Wine, because they both show up as softly pretty, sophisticated colors on me. You may have noticed that both are matte. I have nothing against the shimmer in the others; it's not over the top at all, and in fact, looks like a pretty natural glow on the cheeks. I guess I just feel that if you want shimmer, you might as well go all out and get the NARS blushes, because NARS does shimmer best.

On that note, I went through all of these, hopefully swatching for ages, waiting to find a match or two - but, bizarrely enough, none of the Jane blushes are dupes at all of any of the NARS blushes I currently own (Penny Lane, Deep Throat, Orgasm, Sin, Mata Hari, and Dolce Vita). A few of them looked at first glance like they could be close in tone to Penny Lane, Orgasm, and/or Deep Throat, but upon further inspection they really weren't even similar enough to bother with comparison pictures at all. (And, while I don't own the entire NARS blush collection, I do have a fairly good memory for what the ones I don't own look like, and I can't think of any really promising dupes with those, either.) It's not that the Jane blushes are bad or unimpressive; they're just relatively unique in color.

The Jane Be Pure Mineral Gel Eyeliners, on the other hand, are truly in a league of their own. I LOVE THEM ALL! As they are in pot form, they must be applied with a brush, but as I mentioned earlier, the brush that comes with each one is really fantastic. (I think I actually use the little Jane brushes on all my gel eyeliners - MAC, Stila, L'Oreal H.I.P., etc. - more often now than the eyeliner brushes by Sephora, EcoTools, and The Body Shop that I purchased for that express purpose! D'oh!) I'd buy more of them just for the brushes, if these ever crapped out on me. But, that aside - I'd buy more of them for the liners themselves, too. They are incredibly pigmented and all four are perfect, gorgeous shades. They have great lasting power: you can create a smoky eye with one, go to a party, get uproariously drunk, have sweaty sex, sleep in your makeup, and that liner will still be intact and fabulous in the morning (I know, I know, shame on me for knowing this, right? But it's true!).

I figure that some will want to know how these compare to the L'Oreal H.I.P. Color Truth Cream Eyeliners (also in pot form). I do like both a lot and for different reasons (the colors all look different from one another - even the two blacks are different), but I find myself reaching for the Jane liners far more often because they aren't quite as soft as the L'Oreal liners. I have trouble sometimes with the L'Oreal liners being so soft that my brush ends up with way too much gunk on it and I end up getting clumps of liner on my lash line, etc. - but I've never had this problem with the Jane liners. I have heard some complain about theirs drying out very quickly; perhaps this is the phenomenon to which they refer? I have had mine since the week they came out (uhh... sometime in October, I think), and I don't find their textures or appearances to be noticeably different now from how they were when I bought them. If this is what they're like when they're dried out, well... I like 'em better this way! =D

I love to pair the Jane Wine liner with MAC's Satin Taupe shadow (and the L'Oreal H.I.P. Burgundy Kohl on my waterline, if I feel like it) - it's a gorgeous color combination - and the Navy one *really* makes my blue eyes "pop." The brown and the black, of course, go with virtually anything and everything. I would highly recommend these to anyone - I truly believe they're one of the best finds available in the drugstore right now!

UPDATE: I decided to return the blushes I didn't like, but wanted to actually try them all on my face (and not just my arm) before doing so; in the end, I actually ended up keeping Orchid Shimmer and Plum, which ended up being the most attractive and flattering once on my cheeks. The ones I said were "orangey" on my arm were still orangey on my cheeks; I just found that I preferred the shimmer blushes to the matte ones on my face, because I tend to look washed out if my blush is less noticeable.

4 comments:

Thanks for more great reviews! I found the Jane blushes to be quite orange on me too. the only on I liked was Blushing Blossom. I have been curious about the Jane gel liners. I am now really excited to try the Wine one, such a pretty color. You have me very curious about the brush too!